The Bichard Inquiry - Report - Digital Education Resource Archive ...

1.37 One version of Form 547 was filled out on 9 August by Mr Pettigrew, and
another version was filled out by Detective Inspector Billam, the head of
one of the four divisional Child Protection Units operated by Humberside
Police at that time.
1.38 Form 547 sets out the three options for investigation:
• social services alone;
• a joint police and social services investigation; or
• the police alone.
The decision recorded on Form 547 was that the investigation should be
a joint police and social services investigation.
Events on 9 August
1.39 The sequence of events on that day was:
1.39.1 Huntley rang Social Services to report a disturbance at his home
where, he told Social Services, AB and YZ had stayed overnight
and that day. His concern appears to have been that AB’s and
YZ’s parents had come to take them away and that YZ had been
‘cuffed by his father causing bruising’.
1.39.2 The police were called to the scene by a third party.
1.39.3 At the scene, AB’s father told police that AB was having full
underage sexual intercourse with Huntley.
1.39.4 All parties went to Grimsby police station, where the Humberside
Police Child Protection Unit became involved.
1.39.5 Mr Pettigrew and DI Billam decided that there should be a joint
police and social services investigation into the allegation made
by AB’s father. A strategy meeting was held later that afternoon
involving Police Constable Teasdale and Catherine Irwin-Banks,
a social worker.
1.40 AB was interviewed on 9 August 1995 by PC Teasdale, with Ms Irwin-Banks in
attendance. AB said she had been having sexual intercourse with Huntley;
and that he knew how old she was. She signed the record of the interview
in PC Teasdale’s notebook to that effect.
1.41 The police note of the interview records that Ms Irwin-Banks had considered
the circumstances of the two children, AB and YZ, and that there were ‘no
significant concerns found in welfare’. Mr Eaden’s evidence was that there
appeared to be ‘significant inconsistency’ between that statement and the
facts of the case.
1.42 AB is recorded in the Crime Report as being unwilling to make a complaint
against Huntley.
28 The Bichard Inquiry – Contacts, recruitment and vetting – the facts